German Broadcaster Buys into Homemade Video Website

The site, which allows users to post homemade videos and TV and movie clips online, is modelled on the hugely popular US-based YouTube. The move underlines traditional media's desire to tap into the lucrative stream of internet advertising generated by these sites.

Prosieben is staying zip-lipped about how much it paid for the stake in MyVideo, which is registered in Romania but financed mainly in Germany. It has, however, revealed that it has the option to buy the remaining 70%.

The site was launched at the end of April and is reported to register around two million downloads each day - a tiny fraction of the 100m YouTube downloads - but it is still the most widely used German language video website.

Its main backers are internet entrepreneurs Oliver and Alexander Samwer who started their upward trajectory with the sale of online auction house Alando.de to eBay six years ago, followed by the sale in 2004 of Jamba, a German online ringtone service, to VeriSign of the US.

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